Video directed by Michel Gondry

Couple of days back I attended Latika Khosla’s (Director, Freedom Tree Design) lecture on trends and color forecast at Colors India workshop. She spoke vividly on trend spotting, color forecasting and her role in it and how and what makes a difference in trends and colors. I’d like to put down a couple of pointers that she’d mentioned:

1. To every trend there is a counter trend.
2. A trend is a new idea that catches the imagination of people.
3. Each and every object is inter related and inter dependent. Wall colors to furnishings to furniture to kitchen appliances to cabinet colors to dressing.
4. Trends are influenced by many elements like natural changes, social evolutions, technological innovations, culture, country climate, etc..
5. Consumers want efficient and aesthetic solutions for their life.
6.Trends are transverse, highly flexible, could result to impulsive merchandising.
7. Trends too have phases: exciting phase to incoming phase to mainstream phase to in action phase to adapted phase to wearing off phase.
8. Trends are important as they drive sales as it helps plan ahead. It makes one ready for the customer to give him/her the right trend mix.
9. Trend forecasting is divided into phases too. First being the Predictive Phase where one looks out for any possible reference towards change in trend or taste and prepares a mood board of all the elements considering all the key drivers. Second being the Deductive Phase where the market research, field visits and recorded data is evaluated. Only after this one reachs the Creative Phase where on the results of the above research and study one is able to spot a Trend.

In this one day overview including 6 presentators, i learnt a new dimension to design and color. It is an indepth study to know how and what is the next change coming up in this cut throat competetive world. How the smallest change if spotted and recorded carefully can lead to becoming a trend. It also deals a lot about dealing with people, knowing them, understanding them and fusing our work with their expectations and delivering a much better result.

Also that when we want to engage with the emotions and seduce the sensibilities of a new consumer, aesthetic considerations of design and color are what will create the critical difference. Color is seen as a powerful force that can transcend cultural and industry borders to influence consumers across the globe.

Another important aspect that was covered was Sustainability in Design. It spoke about how a design or pattern or color interacts with a person and how it sustains itself. It lives on with that person. How so much of urbanization is leading to need for calmer and serene options in every field of need. How people due to shortage of time and craving for nature are preferring to have home aquariums, rooms without walls, plants as sculptures with wide white spaces, swirly patterns, motifs, wanting for sweet soft food palettes, having temples and bars in the same area vicinity, recycling, adapting traditions with modernity, things to be mobile, lazy but energetic, alterable and much more.

We all have been facing problems in colour applications on various surfaces and interfaces. But now we have Natural Colour System (NCS) that brings along the unity of colours as viewed by an eye. The Scandinavian Colour Institute has constructed the NCS as a scientific and logical language for colour communication with global reach. It is a neutral and product independent colour system and can be used as a cross reference to any material. As we open the doors to a new colour system which is set as a national standard in a couple of countries and is gradually becoming an industry standard across numerous markets, we come across its accuracy and consistency in colour. It is also easy and logical to use.
You can checkout their webpage: www.ncscolour.com and explore the new and an upcoming global colour system.